Flashback (episode)
:You may be looking for the literary technique of flashbacks instead. When Tuvok begins to suffer from a mental breakdown, triggered by a suppressed memory, a mind-meld with Janeway takes him back to his tour of duty with Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior. Summary Teaser Aboard ''Voyager'', Neelix is trying to get Tuvok to sample a new juice blend of his that is made from citrus peel, orange juice and papaya seed extract. Tuvok notes that Neelix's "culinary experiments" have had a very low success rate, but is assured that Ensign Golwat enjoyed it, and even asked for a second glass. He gingerly samples the drink and only notes that it is "impressive". While cooking Tuvok's breakfast, Neelix's Porakan eggs are ruined by a plasma surge from Engineering that manifests itself in his stove. The surge is due to modifications to the plasma conduits being made in order to accomodate a new energy source. Neelix and Tuvok are summoned to the bridge. *''Captain's log, stardate 50126.4. We have detected a gaseous anomaly that contains sirillium, a highly combustible and versatile energy source. We've altered course to investigate. '' As Voyager approaches the nebula containing the sirillium, Captain Janeway asks Tuvok to modify the deflector shields to compensate for plasmatic turbulence within the nebula. Tuvok is suddenly stricken with dizziness and disorientation, and relieves himself to go to sick bay. En route, he has a flashback of himself as a child holding the hand of a girl hanging from a cliff. He is not able to hold on, and the girl plummets to her death. Tuvok stumbles into sick bay, where Kes is on duty. He collapses on the floor. Act One Tuvok, now conscious, relates his vision of the girl hanging from the cliff. Though the episode seemed real, he does not recall it having happened. The Doctor's diagnosis suggests a hallucination or repressed memory of some sort. The Doctor gives Tuvok a neurocortical monitor to record his brain patterns and alert sick bay in case the symptoms recur. In Engineering, Harry explains that his sensor sweeps haven't turned up anything that would affect Tuvok or Voyager. Tuvok suggests to B'Elanna that, due to being close to Klingon space, Voyager conduct a tachyon sweep of the nebula to reveal any cloaked ships that could be responsible for the symptoms. But, of course, Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant. As he stares at the sensor display of the nebula, Tuvok experiences another flashback, and once again lets go of the girl hanging from the cliff. In sick bay, The Doctor suggests that a mind meld between the patient and a family member to bring Tuvok's repressed memory to the conscious mind may fix the problem. Being the closest thing Tuvok has to family on Voyager, Captain Janeway agrees to a mind meld with Tuvok. However, instead of accessing the memory of the girl and the cliff, Janeway and Tuvok find themselves on the [[USS Excelsior|USS Excelsior]] in 2293 as Captain Hikaru Sulu initiates a rescue mission (in violation of Starfleet Command's orders) for James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, who have been accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor and are standing trial on Qo'noS. En route, the Excelsior approaches a nebula similar to the one observed on Voyager; as Tuvok turns to look, he flashes back yet again to the girl hanging from the cliff, and the mind meld is interrupted. Act Two Tuvok lies unconscious in sick bay. The Doctor warns that if the repressed memory keeps resurfacing, he could experience brain death from synaptic pathway degradation. Some research on the nebula that the Excelsior encountered 80 years ago shows that they are quite different, but they are similar when viewed by the naked eye. Harry suggests that the visual stimulus of Voyager's nebula triggered Tuvok's memory of the Excelsior. The Doctor revives Tuvok, who completes the story of the interrupted mind meld. The Excelsior was ambushed by Klingons and forced to abort the rescue mission, but this still has no connection to the repressed memory. Tuvok attempts another mind meld with Janeway, but once again they find themselves on the Excelsior. In crew quarters, just before the Klingon attack, Tuvok reveals to Janeway that his conflict with human behavior (his issues with Sulu disobeying orders) was why he resigned from Starfleet following this mission. Back on Vulcan, he took T'Pel as a mate and began raising children, whereupon he understood his parents' decision to send him to Starfleet Academy, and that he should not have resigned. Tuvok once again joined Starfleet in order to expand his knowledge of the galaxy, and to learn from humans. Act Three cruiser]] Back on the bridge of the Excelsior, Sulu lies to Kang, the captain of the Battle Cruiser, about his rescue mission, claiming they got lost inside the nebula due to a navigational system malfunction. Kang insists on escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, so Sulu plays along while looking for a way to lose him. Ensign Tuvok suggests that the trace amounts of sirillium in the nebula can be ignited with a positron beam to distract the Klingons for several seconds while they make their escape. As they clear the nebula, the "match is ignited" and the Excelsior quickly resumes its course to the Klingon homeworld. However, three Klingon Battle Cruisers intercept the Excelsior and begin firing torpedos at it. Tuvok's bunkmate Valtane is killed by a plasma conduit rupture in his console, despite Tuvok's advance warning that the console would explode. This causes the repressed memory to resurface again. In Voyager's sick bay, Tuvok's memory engrams are destabilizing and The Doctor attempts to terminate the mind meld, but is unable to. Tuvok's brain damage is accelerating and he will be braindead within 20 minutes if the mind meld continues. Due to this destabilization, Janeway becomes "visible" to Captain Sulu on the Excelsior. Act Four Tuvok offers to break the mind meld, warning Janeway that if his brain is fatally damaged that she will encounter brain damage as well. Janeway decides to press on, since they have been making good progress. They return to the time before the battle and Tuvok subdues Commander Janice Rand, using her uniform to make Janeway seem inconspicuous amongst the crew of the Excelsior. Meanwhile, The Doctor fits a cortical stimulator on Tuvok to bring him out of the meld with bursts of thoron radiation. This exposes a virus masquerading as one of Tuvok's memory engrams, and The Doctor increases the amount of radiation to kill the virus. The scene on the bridge where Valtane dies is reenacted, now with Janeway in uniform, and the flashback recurs. Janeway asks Tuvok to concentrate, to bring them to the precipice with the girl. Meanwhile, the virus in Tuvok's brain migrates to the Captain's, and accordingly, Janeway experiences her version of Tuvok's flashback, seeing herself as a child in Tuvok's place. The Doctor fits a stimulator on Janeway and irradiates her brain, causing the virus to move again, and now Tuvok's flashback recurs. As the virus begins to die, The Doctor once again increases the amount of radiation to 80 kilodynes. The flashback recurs now with a young Valtane hanging on to the girl, and then again and again with other children — presumably the other hosts the virus has claimed in its lifetime. It turns out that the virus feeds on neural peptides and bypasses the immune system of its host by disguising itself as a memory engram — the false memory of the girl falling from the cliff, so traumatic that the mind would repress it, thus ensuring that it would not be detected living in the brain of the host. Tuvok concludes that Valtane, as he lay dying, infected him with the virus, the same way the virus infected the Captain as Tuvok's mind began to degrade. Memorable Quotes "Mr. Neelix, I would prefer not to hear the life history of my breakfast." : - Tuvok "I don't know what happened to you, but there can be any number of explanations-- hallucination, telepathic communication from another race, repressed memory, momentary contact with a parallel reality... Take your pick. The universe is such a strange place." : - The Doctor to Tuvok "I've observed that Captain Sulu drinks a cup of tea each morning. I thought he might enjoy a Vulcan blend." "'' Oh, I see. Trying to make Lieutenant in your first month? I wish l'd have thought of that when I was your age. Took me three years just to make Ensign." "''I assure you I have no ulterior motive." "Whatever you say, Ensign. See you on the Bridge." "You've never brought '''me' tea." : - '''Tuvok', Janice Rand and Janeway "Mr. Tuvok, if you're gonna remain on my ship, you're gonna have to learn how to appreciate a joke. And don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor, because I know better." : - Sulu "It would seem that Captain Sulu decided not to enter that journey into his official log. The day's entry makes some cryptic remark about the ship being damaged in a gaseous anomaly and needing repairs, but... nothing else." "You mean, he falsified his logs?" "It was a very different time, Mister Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy. They all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officers. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha quadrant still largely unexplored... Humanity on verge of war with Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields... Their ships were half as fast." "No replicators. No holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet history at the Academy, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in those days." "Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that." :- [[Kathryn Janeway|'Janeway']] and [[Harry Kim|'Kim']] "Whew... Vulcans! You guys need to relax." : - Valtane "'' Those two men on trial - I served with them for a long time. I owe them my life a dozen times over, and right now, they're in trouble and I'm going to help them. Let the regulations be damned!" "''That is a most illogical line of reasoning." "You better believe it!" : - Tuvok and Sulu "Who the hell are you?" : - Sulu to Janeway "We could have just asked her." "Asking female officers for their clothing could lead to mis-understanding." :- Janeway and Tuvok after subduing Commander Rand Background Information * "Flashback" was Voyager's tribute to the films starring the cast of the Original Series and Star Trek's 30th anniversary, recreating many scenes from the feature film . * As of this episode, Michael Ansara (Kang) has played the same character on three different live-action Star Trek series. The only other actors to do so are Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Armin Shimerman (Quark), John de Lancie (Q) and Richard Poe (Gul Evek). * George Takei was the only TOS actor to not appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 30th anniversary tribute episode . Grace Lee Whitney, who played the recurring character Janice Rand on TOS, also did not appear as she had left the series by the time (during which the DS9 episode is set) was produced. * Michael Ansara previously played Kang in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode . He also played Jeyal in the DS9 episode, . Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.1, . *As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection. *As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log collection. Links and References Guest Stars *George Takei as Hikaru Sulu *Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand *Michael Ansara as Kang *Jeremy Roberts as Dmitri Valtane *Boris Lee Krutonog as Lojur Uncredited Co-Stars *Louis Ortiz as ''Excelsior'' alien crewman *Tarik Ergin as Ayala *Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick *Demetris Lawson as young Tuvok References Azure Nebula; Bolian; class 17 nebula; class 11 nebula; cortical stimulator; cordrazine; crew quarters; ''Enterprise''-A, USS; ''Excelsior'', USS; ''Excelsior''-class; Golwat; Keethara; Khitomer; Kirk, James T.; Klingon battle cruiser; Kolinahr; ''K't'inga''-class; McCoy, Leonard H.; memory virus; neurocortical monitor; Pon farr; Porakan eggs; Porakas IV; Praxis; pyllora; rengazo; repressed memory; sirillium; Spock; subspace shock wave; Talax; tea; thoron radiation; T'lokan schism; T'Pel; Vulcan; ''Wyoming'', USS; ''Yorktown'', USS |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Tuvoks Flashback es:Flashback nl:Flashback